I wrote the other day about Andrew O'Hagan's wonderful novel, Be Near Me. The title is taken from an extract from Tennyson's great poem In Memoriam, written after the death of his beloved friend Arthur Hallam. It is a very long poem but these few stanzas, which are used an as epigraph to the novel, I thought quite amazing. I'm not even sure I fully understand all the imagery, but it is certainly very powerful stuff.
Be near me when my light is low,
When the blood creeps, and the nerves prick
And tingle; and the heart is sick,
And all the wheels of Being slow.
Be near me when the sensuous frame
Is rack'd with pangs that conquer trust;
And Time, a maniac scattering dust,
And Life, a Fury slinging flame.
Be near me when my faith is dry,
And men the flies of latter spring,
That lay their eggs, and sting and sing
And weave their petty cells and die.
Be near me when I fade away,
To point the term of human strife,
And on the low dark verge of life
The twilight of eternal day.
